Indo: IBEC call for better broadband pricing

SkepticOne

The Telecommunications Users Group, part of IBEC, has complained in The Independent about the high cost of DSL in Ireland.

The TUG pointed out that Ireland is the most expensive country in the European SME category for broadband competitiveness while it ranked ninth for larger companies, referring to a Forfás benchmarking survey from earlier this year.

According to Nickey Brennan, chairman of TUG, the government and the telecoms regulator need to provide the necessary environment for competition.

He added that pressure should be maintained on Eircom to rollout DSL at more competitive prices. "IStream does not provide an affordable broadband solution for business or households," he said.

"A basic monthly DSL price of €30 to €40 is needed to stimulate adequate demand, while iStream costs the user a connection fee of €199.65 and a monthly fee of €107.69," he said.

Full story here.

kamobe

That's the type of article that "Danger" could casually refer to on the radio:

"In today's paper for instance, IBEC's Telecommunications User's Group (TUG) has again highlighted Ireland's lack of competitiveness in the broadband arena...."

Perfect!

"A basic monthly DSL price of €30 to €40 is needed to stimulate adequate demand, while iStream costs the user a connection fee of €199.65 and a monthly fee of €107.69,"

It is somewhat re-assuring that there are some big guns out there pointing out the flaws in Eircom's seemingly perfect I-Stream service.....

STaN

can u imagine the uptake of broadband if the price was dropped to €40. The country would explode for it. TBH that would mean that it would be as cheap to get adsl as to get hi-speed so u can see that no way will eircom want to loose such a lucrative side to their business, if they were dropping it at all i'd say they'd drop it to about €70-€80 a month. I dont see any1 bullying €ircon (except the goverment the; ODTR doesnt seem to be pushing that hard really) to a drastic reduction in prices.

jmcc

This part of the story is worrying though:

"Mr Brennan also stressed the importance of having an international, carrier-neutral internet exchange in
Ireland, one not owned by any particular carrier.

"Without an internet exchange, government proposals to spend €300m on broadband local access will
be wasteful as maximum benefit from such access will not be passed onto the end user." "

<WARGAME MODE>
Eircom could easily point out that a national INEX exists and therefore the critical aspect for any national traffic is that it is routed via the INEX than international links. This would allow the Irish internet business to grow.
</WARGAME MODE>

Nasty but I think that is how Eircom would retaliate. I think that Brennan is getting the functions of an INEX and an international INEX mixed up.

Regards...jmcc

spongebob

Our competitors are wiping the floor with us according to This article here.

WE think that the UK is way ahead of us (they are) but globally they are not even in the Top 20. At least the Brits are now firing on all cylinders in a serious attempt to catchup with new initiatives weekly and a Committment from the Incumbent carrier. This is the same incumbent carrier that is c.€25Billion in debt while our lot owe nothing (their owners do but the company is Debt free).

Korea , Taiwan and Hong Kong....the leaders in the survey....are competing in the same technology space that made the 'Celtic Tiger' the envy of the world during the last economic cycle. We are looking likely to go into the next cycle at a major competitive disadvantage.

M

BoneCollector

can u imagine the uptake of broadband if the price was dropped to €40. The country would explode for it.

yes! except thats exactly! why it is currenty so highly priced, because they could not handle the demand so the current price model is to surpress demand or help pay for eircoms efforts to maintain any demand that is applied. (thats my theory) :-)

The Cigarette Smoking Man

Originally posted by jmcc
This part of the story is worrying though:

"Mr Brennan also stressed the importance of having an international, carrier-neutral internet exchange in
Ireland, one not owned by any particular carrier.

"Without an internet exchange, government proposals to spend €300m on broadband local access will
be wasteful as maximum benefit from such access will not be passed onto the end user." "

<WARGAME MODE>
Eircom could easily point out that a national INEX exists and therefore the critical aspect for any national traffic is that it is routed via the INEX than international links. This would allow the Irish internet business to grow.
</WARGAME MODE>

Nasty but I think that is how Eircom would retaliate. I think that Brennan is getting the functions of an INEX and an international INEX mixed up.

Regards...jmcc

It would be very easy to change the MoU for the INEX to incorporate international traffic, there isn't any technical reason that it couldn't be expanded. It would also be easier to expand the existing infrastructure than having to invest in a new one.

They should also allow content providers to transit through the INEX, at the moment you have to be an ISP to join. In the LINX in the UK, for example, the BBC have peering that must save them a fortune in bandwidth for all of their streaming content. There's no reason why RTE shouldn't be allowed to do the same here.

And lastly why can't normal businesses with an existing Internet connection peer there? Eg a company with a 10Mb into eircom that's using it to transfer a lot of data to it's Irish customers shouldn't have to pay for a large Internet connection when a connection into the Inex would save them a fortune.

spongebob

with the kinda profile that would ideally suit the INEX in MultiPeer mode is surely

http://www.boards.ie

ya never know till ya ask?

M

vinnyfitz

Not a bad piece - they actually managed to mention it is not just for business but also for home users.

You can get it here but sorry folks its that much loved RP again!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0830/morningireland.html

"IBEC highlights broadband costs

Brendan Butler, IBEC's Director of Enterprise, explains broadband and discusses broadband costs in Ireland 28K "